PSTA agrees to build terminal in Pinellas Park

PINELLAS PARK — Members of the board that oversees bus service in Pinellas County unanimously voted to build a terminal with restrooms at the Shoppes at Park Place.

The decision last week should end the monthslong standoff between the center's owners, Pinellas Park and the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority over public urination and defecation at the bus stop on the 70th Avenue N side of the mall. City and mall officials placed most of the blame on riders who were waiting to transfer but did not have enough time between buses to get to a nearby business.

Pinellas Park council member Patti Johnson, who represents the city on the PSTA board, said she was thrilled.

"I'm jumping up and down on tables," Johnson said. The dispute has "turned into a really great thing for Pinellas Park."

Pinellas Park and the mall's owner, Boulder Venture South, complained to PSTA officials several months ago about the problem. Bus passengers were relieving themselves by a Dumpster near a breezeway next to the multiplex cinemas.

At first, PSTA said it was not responsible for providing restroom facilities for its passengers even though Pinellas Park promised to contribute $100,000 to the construction costs. When no agreement could be reached, the city told PSTA to remove the transit area, which serves as a hub for seven routes, some of the county's longest, and more than 2,000 rides a day.

Bus officials proposed moving the transfer point for some of the routes to the nearby Park Boulevard and 49th Street N intersection. The proposal would have seen passengers scrambling to cross the intersection, one of the Pinellas' busiest and most hazardous, to transfer from one bus to another.

Bus officials also took a second look at the issue and its statistics. With ridership increasing by about 32 percent during the past 10 years, the county's three PSTA customer service terminals have become increasingly crowded. And none of those are in mid Pinellas, where about 20 percent of the riders who use transportation disadvantaged passes live. That meant that about 1,400 people had to ride one or more hours to get to the Clearwater or one of the two St. Petersburg customer service kiosks to get their TD passes.

PSTA officials decided a better solution would be to build a customer service center at the Shoppes at Park Place, 7200 U.S. 19 N, complete with public restrooms. The cost for construction is expected to total about $430,000 but Pinellas Park plans to contribute $100,000 of that. The yearly operating costs are estimated at about $222,000.

Construction is expected to start this fall and be finished by next summer. The new facility will include space for a manned customer service booth where people will be able to buy bus passes, get PSTA materials and official PSTA identification cards.

"This is a great day for our riders," PSTA CEO Brad Miller said. "A facility like this for our midcounty riders has been long overdue."

NEW PORT RICHEY — Deputies arrested a Dunedin man on Sunday who was on the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office’s "prolific offender’’ list.James Edward Boyle, 50, was being held Monday in the Pasco County Jail in lieu of $134,300 bail for 11 felony and mis...

MOSCOW — A day after his not-at-all-surprising landslide win in Russia’s presidential election, Vladimir Putin slipped comfortably into a favored role Monday: that of the magnanimous victor.In an ornate conference room deep inside the Kremlin, with g...

Calvary Christian moved quickly to find a football coach, announcing the hiring of Alonso's Reggie Crume on Monday.Crume leaves the Ravens after one season to take over for Todd Yoder, who stepped down three weeks ago to pursue coaching opportunities...

RIVERVIEW — When Walter Ballard ran into his buddy Ronnie Oneal four days ago, nothing about him foreshadowed the horror that was to come."He was good," Ballard recalled. "We were just catching up."Then, on Sunday night, Ballard got a call from his 1...

TAMPA — Two Tampa police officers went early Monday to arrest a man on a warrant that accused him of illegally owning guns and threatening his family.They didn’t know that Walter Richard Jeziorski III had in his home an assault rifle, a pistol and 30...

WASHINGTON — A lawyer who has suggested that FBI officials were part of a "brazen plot" to exonerate Hillary Clinton and frame Donald Trump has been added to the president’s legal team. Joseph diGenova, a former United States attorney in the District...

NEW YORK — Facebook likes can tell a lot about a person. Maybe even enough to fuel a voter-manipulation effort like the one a Trump-affiliated data-mining firm stands accused of — and which Facebook may have enabled. The social network is now under f...

The American Athletic Conference announced Monday it has joined forces with the ACC to form a football officiating alliance, effective immediately.The partnership will allow the conferences "to work together on a wide range of officiating matters, in...

MANCHESTER, N.H. — Unveiling a long-awaited plan to combat the national scourge of opioid drug addiction, President Donald Trump called Monday for stiffer penalties for drug traffickers, including embracing a tactic employed by some of the global str...